Ah, the Wonders of the Ritualistic Mindset

[Fausta]

So, I did my little Winter Solstice rituals. I offered some wine, poured myself a glass (or goblet, ceramic wineglass I've made) and drank it, did new year readings, poured myself another glass of wine and drank it, then closed the ritual.

Afterwards, I took the remaining wine upstairs, put it down, commented to the husband how I don't feel at all like having downed two glasses of wine and then took a look at the  bottle. The bottle is still full enough that the wine level is still at the curved part of the bottle! :p

Of course, I'm pretty sure I poured proper glasses, not just drops.

Do you have experiences with differences between what's experienced or feels like you've done during ritual and what outside evidence tells you has happened?

[MarieBay]

Do you have experiences with differences between what's experienced or feels like you've done during ritual and what outside evidence tells you has happened?

 
Yep. It's usually a time thing for me: rituals that feel like they take an hour or more (due to the amount of work being done, not boredom :p) are 20 minutes or less according to the clock.

[Fausta]

Yep. It's usually a time thing for me: rituals that feel like they take an hour or more (due to the amount of work being done, not boredom :p) are 20 minutes or less according to the clock.

 
Oh yes, the "within-ritual time out of time" -phenomenon. *nods*

[Gilbride]

Yep. It's usually a time thing for me: rituals that feel like they take an hour or more (due to the amount of work being done, not boredom :p) are 20 minutes or less according to the clock.

I've experienced the time thing too. I was in an ecstatic state once during a ritual in Maine on Imbolc. It was ten degrees Fahrenheit outside, but in my god-addled state I wandered outside with my shirt off and walked around in a nearby park for what I thought was about twenty minutes. I later found out it had been more like an hour. Obviously not behavior I'd recommend to others, nor would I deliberately do it again, but I wasn't hurt or even cold.

[Catherine]

Yep. It's usually a time thing for me: rituals that feel like they take an hour or more (due to the amount of work being done, not boredom :p) are 20 minutes or less according to the clock.

 
Yep, time goes all wonky for me, too.

[Fausta]

Obviously not behavior I'd recommend to others, nor would I deliberately do it again, but I wasn't hurt or even cold.

 
I've experienced similar during a Spring Equinox ritual of mine. It was just below freezing, midnight, I was in the woods - a small clearing - and there was more than plenty of snow. I did my ritual in the nude (save for shoes) and didn't feel the cold. Normally, I freezer really, really easily so this was a risky experiment - but worth it.

Not that I'm about to necessarily do that again, but I also learned that for a complete success: dress first, take the circle down second. NOT the other way around, like I did it, because that little stretch of time HAD me freezing, while a lengthy ritual went splendidly. :p

[Gilbride]

NOT the other way around, like I did it, because that little stretch of time HAD me freezing, while a lengthy ritual went splendidly. :p

Yup- once it's over it's over, and then you're a mere mortal again.:eek:

[Sulischild]

Oh yes, the "within-ritual time out of time" -phenomenon. *nods*

I've had this, too - a particular ritual I thought took well over an hour was done and dusted in about 20 minutes, while some readings I thought went quite fast actually chewed up a lot of time.

The romantic, unresearched, history-mangling part of me wonders if that might have some little thing to do with the stories of people disappearing into fairy mounds or other Otherworld portals and coming back to find it's been a night for them but 100 years for the mundane world, or they've aged a lifetime but only ten minutes real time has passed.

[oldman]

I've had this, too - a particular ritual I thought took well over an hour was done and dusted in about 20 minutes, while some readings I thought went quite fast actually chewed up a lot of time.

The romantic, unresearched, history-mangling part of me wonders if that might have some little thing to do with the stories of people disappearing into fairy mounds or other Otherworld portals and coming back to find it's been a night for them but 100 years for the mundane world, or they've aged a lifetime but only ten minutes real time has passed.

 
I've experienced the time thing also, though it is usually what seems like a relatively short ritual actually runs around an hour to an hour and a half real-time.  sometimes I've had rituals that felt long but were actually less than 30 minutes realtime, but normally when it happens the rituals seem shorter than the actual ammount of time that has passed.

[Oíche]

Oh yes, the "within-ritual time out of time" -phenomenon. *nods*

I've experienced this a lot.
Usually my private rituals tend to be about one hour long on the dot, but it feels like longer.

A friend and I booked the prayer room in our University's chaplaincy for two hours to celebrate the Winter Solstice last month. We did our ritual and took our time. In fact we did more than I normally would (we were compromising on a few things being from different pagan backgrounds so took longer to set things up), we blessed several tools and did several other prayers.
We were worried about going over the time but just as we were finishing up some Muslim ladies came in to use the room for prayer (even though the door had engaged on it, but no matter :confused:) and we discovered our ritual had taken exactly one hour between setting up and actually having our circle!
Bizarre! :eek: